CVE-2018-5527 Denial of service in BIG-IP (LTM, AAM, AFM, Analytics, APM, ASM, DNS, Edge Gateway, GTM, Link Controller, PEM, WebAccelerator, WebSafe)

High 7.5 Published 27 Jun 2018 Updated 16 Sep 2024

Remote attackers can cause memory exhaustion and system reboots on F5 BIG-IP devices with SSL Forward Proxy enabled.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2018-5527?

CVE-2018-5527 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, published on 27 Jun 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

On BIG-IP 13.1.0-13.1.0.7, a remote attacker using undisclosed methods against virtual servers configured with a Client SSL or Server SSL profile that has the SSL Forward Proxy feature enabled can force the Traffic Management Microkernel (tmm) to leak memory. As a result, system memory usage increases over time, which may eventually cause a decrease in performance or a system reboot due to memory exhaustion.

Weakness: CWE-772

Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-5527?

It affects 13 products.

Products include F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager, F5 Big-Ip Analytics, F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager, F5 Big-Ip Application Security Manager, F5 Big-Ip Domain Name System and 7 more.

How do I fix CVE-2018-5527?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-5527 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2018-5527 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-5527 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-xg9f-gj9x-f37p.